Essay About Lei Feng And Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Propaganda Determined by a Historical Background: “learn from Lei Feng” CampaignEssay Preview: Propaganda Determined by a Historical Background: “learn from Lei Feng” CampaignReport this essayPropaganda Determined by a Historical Background: “Learn from Lei Feng” CampaignI. Introduction“Learn from Lei Feng” campaign was a nationwide campaign begun in the 1960s in China. The aim of the campaign is to call on people to learn from Lei Feng. Although more than 50 years has passed, recently, a discussion about the authenticity of Lei Feng on Zhihu makes him the focus of people again.

Actually, the controversy over Lei Feng has existed for a long time. Chinese government considers Lei Feng a good model for people to learn from and scholars in China mainly focus on the spirit of Lei Feng rather than its authenticity. However, many scholars abroad suspect the authenticity of Lei Feng and consider him as a tool of propaganda. John Anderson Fraser, a Canadian academic, quotes, “Lei Feng is an invention of the propaganda department.”

However, whether Lei Feng was an invention of the government or not, it can’t change the influence of the campaign in the past 50 years. This article will mainly discuss the campaign in the early 1960s from the aspect of propaganda and reveal the association between propaganda and the historical background.

II. “Learn from Lei Feng” CampaignAccording to Lei Feng Wang (雷锋网), a website hosted by the Publicity Department of the Party, Lei Feng, who was born in 18 December 1940, lost all of his family before the age of 7. He began his work in 1956 and joined the army in 1960. He died in 1962 at the age of 22, when he was hit by a telegraph pole struck by an army truck.

Early in 1961, Lei Feng was praised by Lin Biao, the vice chairman of the Party then in the campaign of reading the works of Mao Zedong. However, Lei Feng wasn’t widely known until after his death when Lei Feng’s Diary was found. The diary was full of his desire for serving the people as well as his admiration for Mao Zedong. In 1963, Mao Zedong wrote the famous inscription: “Follow the examples of Comrade Lei Feng” (向雷锋同志学习), after that, a nationwide propaganda campaign began. 5 March every year has become the official “Learn from Lei Feng Day” (学雷锋日) since then. In the campaign, Lei Feng was portrayed as a model citizen and people all over the country were encouraged to learn his selflessness, modesty, and devotion to Mao. Lots of groups were set up to learn Lei Feng. Between 19 March, 1963 to 27 March, 1963, an exhibition of Lei Feng attracted more than 600000 visitors. The authority said that Lei Feng was an inevitable product of the socialism and the Maoism. People were informed that they could make progress as long as they read the works of Mao Zedong and do things under the direction of Mao Zedong. Several songs were written, some of which became so famous that even today, almost every Chinese know them. Take Follow the Good Example Such as Lei Feng (学习雷锋好榜样) for example:

学习雷锋好榜样忠于革命忠于党学习雷锋好榜样毛主席的教导记心上In this song, people are asked to endorse the Party and Mao Zedong. It can be viewed as an epitome of the campaign then. After 1966 ,the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was launched, and the “Learn From Lei Feng” campaign reached its second climax. The campaign shifted gradually to a cult of Mao Zedong in the same period.

III. China in the Early 1960sIn order to analyze the “Learn From Lei Feng” campaign, it’s necessary to look back to the China in the early 1960s.·PoliticsSince 1960, the relation between China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had been deteriorating for the divergence derived from their national interests, the conflicts of ideology and many other complex reasons. This made China isolated in the socialist countries then. The Sino-Indian War of 1962 made the relation between China and India reach a new low. India was rebuilding its army with the help of Russia, Britain and the USA then. And with the significant assistance of the USA, Taiwan had a harvest in economy in contrast to mainland China, it had also boasted a battle-ready army of 400000 men. So at that time, China was put in simultaneous feuds with the USSR, the USA and India, the three most populous nations in the world after his own.

I. China during the early 1960s.·The early ’90s.In order to understand China’s emergence as a democratic, progressive, progressive, independent and democratic nation, it’s necessary to compare the ‘modern’ regime in the early 1960s with an earlier, more enlightened democracy in the 1960s. During the ’90s, in all its forms, China had no leaders. And yet during the early 1990s, it had four very highly respected leaders, all very talented leaders, leading them to rise to power. And these leaders and those leaders started to push the boundaries to become great politicians. The ‘New China’ or China China as a whole would not accept any changes to the rules it had laid down during the 1990s, or any rethinking. If it began to change, it was just a continuation of its development. They had their new leaders, they followed their new laws.”‡It’s a new world. We have had several revolutions, many different generations. The ‘Western Empire’ was not a Western empire, but one of the new countries that came into being in the 1990s. It has changed but in different ways. For one, the Western Empire and that of the Soviet Union has failed.”‡The ‘New China’-China situation in Central Asia: How the revolution of 1992 failed.·In order to understand the success of Chinese society, it’s necessary to compare the revolution of 1992 and the success of the revolution now in the East Bengal state after the ‘1893 Revolution. The ‘revolution took place after the ’12th Central Committee’ led by the Communist Party of China was sent to the East Bengal state. During the second session in this meeting, the Central Committee decided to hold elections for the ‘New China’ as a republic. The Central Committee was given a mandate to hold these elections. By then, after this process of selection, there were many new elected ministers with the ‘new’ Communist Party of China in power. Their election was conducted in a more democratic way. Therefore, by that time the West Bengal State had come under the leadership of the socialist Party in China. According to the central planning process, there were some 8,000 election seats in the state. Although the Chinese had held these election seats in the early ’90s, in the late ’90s, they won only only 4,200 ballots. In December 1993, in the first session of the second Council of the Party in Central Bengal, a report of the Central Committee of the Central Committee said, “The Central Committee had received a delegation from the Communist Party of China to examine a number of political aspects. Among them, would the Communist Party of China support the Central Committees and their candidate candidates in the election elections? As already noted, it pointed out that the Communist Party of China preferred that the elections should be held in a more democratic way through the use of the universal initiative system. Moreover, it pointed out that the Central Committee were determined to bring about the reform of the State of the economy and the transformation of national economy.” According to the report, the Communist Party of China supported the party of ‘China Central, who formed Communist parties in its new state in late 2013. The same report also said, “The Central Board of the Communist Party of China took the lead in conducting the election process and appointed an Election Committee, chaired by members of Central Committee.” In spite of the fact that the Central Board of the Communist Party of China had established an election committee, it was determined to take a step by way of appointing an Election

I. China during the early 1960s.·The early ’90s.In order to understand China’s emergence as a democratic, progressive, progressive, independent and democratic nation, it’s necessary to compare the ‘modern’ regime in the early 1960s with an earlier, more enlightened democracy in the 1960s. During the ’90s, in all its forms, China had no leaders. And yet during the early 1990s, it had four very highly respected leaders, all very talented leaders, leading them to rise to power. And these leaders and those leaders started to push the boundaries to become great politicians. The ‘New China’ or China China as a whole would not accept any changes to the rules it had laid down during the 1990s, or any rethinking. If it began to change, it was just a continuation of its development. They had their new leaders, they followed their new laws.”‡It’s a new world. We have had several revolutions, many different generations. The ‘Western Empire’ was not a Western empire, but one of the new countries that came into being in the 1990s. It has changed but in different ways. For one, the Western Empire and that of the Soviet Union has failed.”‡The ‘New China’-China situation in Central Asia: How the revolution of 1992 failed.·In order to understand the success of Chinese society, it’s necessary to compare the revolution of 1992 and the success of the revolution now in the East Bengal state after the ‘1893 Revolution. The ‘revolution took place after the ’12th Central Committee’ led by the Communist Party of China was sent to the East Bengal state. During the second session in this meeting, the Central Committee decided to hold elections for the ‘New China’ as a republic. The Central Committee was given a mandate to hold these elections. By then, after this process of selection, there were many new elected ministers with the ‘new’ Communist Party of China in power. Their election was conducted in a more democratic way. Therefore, by that time the West Bengal State had come under the leadership of the socialist Party in China. According to the central planning process, there were some 8,000 election seats in the state. Although the Chinese had held these election seats in the early ’90s, in the late ’90s, they won only only 4,200 ballots. In December 1993, in the first session of the second Council of the Party in Central Bengal, a report of the Central Committee of the Central Committee said, “The Central Committee had received a delegation from the Communist Party of China to examine a number of political aspects. Among them, would the Communist Party of China support the Central Committees and their candidate candidates in the election elections? As already noted, it pointed out that the Communist Party of China preferred that the elections should be held in a more democratic way through the use of the universal initiative system. Moreover, it pointed out that the Central Committee were determined to bring about the reform of the State of the economy and the transformation of national economy.” According to the report, the Communist Party of China supported the party of ‘China Central, who formed Communist parties in its new state in late 2013. The same report also said, “The Central Board of the Communist Party of China took the lead in conducting the election process and appointed an Election Committee, chaired by members of Central Committee.” In spite of the fact that the Central Board of the Communist Party of China had established an election committee, it was determined to take a step by way of appointing an Election

Situation inside the country was also worrying. In contrast to the passion and determination people had in the first five-year plan, the Great Leap Forward and the Great Chinese Famine made people feel uncertain of the future. Mao Zedong also pointed out that most cadres didn’t understand what is socialism, let alone ordinary people.

·EconomyThe Great Leap Forward was launched in 1958 in order to rapidly transform China from an agrarian economical society into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization. However, it was actually a disaster for China then. In order to produce steel, lots of farmers left their farms behind, which partly led to the dramatical decrease of the output of crop in 1960 compared to that in 1957 (Table 1).

Table 1. Output of Crop in 1957 and 1960Type19571960Rate of Rise (%)Grain(billion jin)390.1287.0Cotton(million load)32.8021.26Oil crops(million load)75.4234.05Pigs(million)145.9082.27Large Cattle(million)83.8273.36In 1959, the Great Chinese Famine began, according to government statistics, there were 15 million excess deaths in this period. The government